Field of the Invention
This application relates in general to LED drivers the characteristics of which can be adjusted after manufacture, either by connecting a graphic user interface, by attaching programming resistors or by means of a Zigbee wireless interface.
Description of the Related Art
According to its Wikipedia article, “ZigBee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios. The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other wireless personal area networks (WPANs), such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Applications include wireless light switches, electrical meters with in-home-displays, traffic management systems, and other consumer and industrial equipment that requires short-range low-rate wireless data transfer.”
A variety of different LED drivers are wirelessly programmable. U.S. Pat. No. 8,575,851 Entitled Programmable LED Driver by Bahrehmand describes a programmable LED driver which has a microprocessor with an EEPROM, (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) a buck converter, a wireless interface and can be adjusted in the field, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. However Bahrehmand lacks over temperature protection, and cannot be programmed by external resistors, does not have a DC (analog) output and does not have a 0-10 V (analog) input. U.S. Pat. No. 7,038,399 by Lys entitled Methods And Apparatus For Providing Power To Lighting Devices describes a programmable LED driver with a microprocessor which has an EEPROM, is field programmable, has a wireless interface, an analog dimming input, and a programmable dimming curve, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. However Lys does not describe the use of Zigbee, has no over temperature protection, does not use a buck converter, does not have DC output and cannot be field programmed with external resistors. U.S. Pat. No. 8,525,446 by Tikkanen entitled Configurable LED Driver/Dimmer For Solid State Lighting Applications describes a programmable LED driver which has a microprocessor, a buck converter and a ROM (read only memory) to store instructions. Tikkanen mentions a Zigbee interface and describes a DC (analog) output, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. However Tikkanen cannot be programmed either with resistors or with a graphical user interface, does not have an analog dimming input control, does not have a programmable dimming response curve and does not have over temperature protection.